Drag X Drive

Genre: Sports (Basketball)

Players: 1-6 Team Competitive (Online)

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Review:

When Nintendo first revealed the Nintendo Switch 2, one of the first games to be shown off for the new hybrid console was Drag X Drive, a wheelchair Basketball game (Nintendo doesn’t use the word “wheelchair” anywhere, but they’re obviously wheelchairs). It seemed like one of Nintendo’s classic “out of left field” announcements, a game clearly designed to show off a unique use for the Joy-Con 2 controllers’ mouse mode, and one that seemed extraordinarily niche for one of the Nintendo Switch 2’s first exclusives games.

Released in 2025, Drag X Drive presents players with 3v3 matches where players have three minutes to outscore the other team, complete with 2-pointers, 3-pointers, and even dunks using skateboarding-esque ramps near each basket. And of course the gimmick here is that nearly everything in the game is done using either mouse mode controls or motion controls.

Your main method of moving around has you using both Joy-Con 2 controllers in mouse mode as if each one were controlling a wheel, moving both forward on a surface to move forward, moving both back to back up, and either using a single Joy-Con or moving the two in different directions to turn. It takes a bit of getting used to, and even then it never quite feels perfectly natural, but it still works and the unique control scheme definitely sets this game apart from other Basketball games.

I will note that Nintendo recommends that you use the Joy-Con 2 controllers on your legs rather than on a table, and I was skeptical but I must admit that this definitely works better and feels more natural, though I would warn you that if you’re wearing shorts be warned that you might scratch up your legs a bit.

As for the motion controls, that’s how the game handles shooting, not really being particular about aiming or anything like that, but just having you lift up a Joy-Con and mimic a shooting motion. From there, the game judges accuracy based on proximity to the hoop and the angle you’re shooting from. Again, I feel like this works pretty well, though it’s certainly more of a workout than just playing a game with standard gamepad controls.

Oh, and on that note, there are no standard gamepad controls here, nor a convenient way to play this game in handheld mode. Unless you’re playing this game with a pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers in mouse mode, you won’t be playing this game.

During a match with other players online, despite the odd controls there’s some interesting strategy at play, with players needing to position themselves both to knock the ball out of opponents’ hands via a face-on collision, while the team in position needs to try to out-maneuver opponents to get to the goal. There are some advanced techniques to assist with this for those who can manage to learn them, such as doing wheelies and small jumps, and I think it’s fair to say the skill ceiling on this is pretty high, so there are sure to be some skilled players doing impressive things after this game has been out for a while.

However, with the random smattering of players the game lumped me in with… well, let’s just say that two teams full of players who don’t know how to pass and all try to hog the ball for themselves makes for a pretty lousy game of basketball no matter what unique gimmicks the game uses, and with everyone in wheelchairs this often led to messy pile-ups that couldn’t have been fun for anyone.

Here’s where I get to this game’s biggest flaw – Drag X Drive is absolutely terrible when it comes to game modes and options. There’s no ranked and casual modes, no local multiplayer, no campaign mode, no ability to form teams of friends, no ability to set up a custom tournament, and no different game variants – it would have been great to at least have the option to play in a mode with Mario-style power-ups or something to break up the repetitive nature of the game. Sadly, the only such thing here are a few minigames played between rounds, and even then these could be dreadfully uninventive, like a contest to see who could reach a bouncing ball first.

This blandness extends to the presentation, which is technically decent with smooth framerates and a clean resolution, along with some nice textures… but the game’s indoor courts are utterly boring to look at, and despite a few customization options, the game’s robotic players all look the same. And don’t even ask me about the game’s music, because if it even has any, I didn’t notice it.

It’s just mind-boggling that Nintendo could come up with a bonkers concept like using two mice to play wheelchair basketball, and then proceed to use that concept in a game that is utterly devoid of personality, lacking in any sort of options, and generally created with what seems to be the intent of making it appear as boring and lifeless as possible. If we got this game from any other publisher, it might be flooded with microtransactions, but we would at least see tons of different skins, cross-promotion cameos, and other stuff to ensure that this game looked as interesting as its core concept.

I must at least credit Nintendo with charging only $20 for this game. At that price, it’s easy to forgive how empty it all feels. However, I can’t help but feel like this really could have used at least a bit more content to keep things interesting, or at least give players options for how to play it.

In the end, despite all my complaints, I did enjoy my time playing Drag X Drive. There really is nothing else like it, though I suppose Rocket League is in roughly the same neighborhood… and is free-to-play… and is a much better game overall. However, what this game does that’s unique does make this worth checking out for anyone curious about the concept, and the relatively low $20 price tag makes it easier to pull the trigger on this. Just be aware that the $20 price tag also meant that Nintendo felt they could skimp on anything outside of that core concept.

tl;dr – Drag X Drive is a 3v3 wheelchair Basketball game where players must use a pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers in mouse mode to steer their wheelchairs. It’s a truly unique concept that more or less works here, but this game is woefully lacking in content, and dreadfully dull in its art design. The $20 price tag does help to mitigate some of the emptiness within this game, but it’s still disappointing that players aren’t given more game modes, options, and content to keep things varied and interesting. Still, for Sports fans looking for something unique, this is worth a look.

Grade: B-

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